1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to industrial trucks and, more particularly, to a counterbalanced forklift truck which can be selectively operated either manually or automatically and which is provided with a fork to handle loaded pallets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A generic industrial truck designed as a forklift truck is disclosed in German reference DE 36 06 418. However, no detailed disclosure of the functioning of this vehicle in automatic operation is found in the DE 36 06 418 reference. So-called "driverless transport systems" are known in the art. One example of such a driverless transport system is an automatic shelf loader in which a picked up load can be moved both vertically and horizontally. The known driverless transport systems are preferably program controlled. For such control, the load to be picked up must always be placed exactly in a specific spatial position. With regard to the specific route to be traveled by a driverless industrial truck, systems in which the vehicle is guided along a track are typically used.
As a rule, such driverless transport systems are controlled by a central computer. The central computer may control the vehicle remotely with the cooperation of an on-board computer, for example, by means of radio data transmission. Driverless transport systems require a high construction outlay. In addition, because of their design and control-technology orientation, driverless transport systems are not universally usable, in contrast to conventional forklift trucks.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an industrial truck which can, with minimal expense, be operated both manually and automatically.